High School Football: Crabbers Find Spark

October 20, 2007|By DAVE JOHNSON, djohnson@dailypress.com - 247-4649

HAMPTON — Officially, it goes in the books as a 28-0 victory by Hampton over Kecoughtan at Darling Stadium. In reality, it was a scoreless tie and anybody's ballgame midway through the third quarter until a 195-pound sophomore made the play of the night.

Coming through virtually untouched, Monte Haney blocked a punt at the 5-yard line. Teammate James Lynch scooped it up and ran into the end zone, finally getting Hampton on the board. From there, the Crabbers rode a 21-point fourth period - two offensive touchdowns and a 25-yard interception return by Pierre Wynn - to bounce back from last week's loss to Phoebus.

"That's where it all started," Kecoughtan coach Glenn Tidwell said. "That's the play that changed it."

Until that point, the underdog Warriors (2-6, 2-5 Peninsula District) had played Hampton to a stalemate. Despite a stunning edge in field position - the average start of their first five possessions was their 48-yard line - the Crabbers (7-1, 6-1) were unable to get on the board.

"I felt I had to step up and make a play," Haney said. "We needed to get this one. On (another) punt, I was inches away from getting it. I knew I could get it."

Given the spark it needed, Hampton rolled from there. On their next possession, the Crabbers ate nearly 71/2 minutes off the clock with a 13-play, 65-yard drive capped by Tron Martinez's touchdown with 9:55 left in the game. Three plays later, Wynn intercepted Warrior quarterback Anthony Dorsey and returned it 25 yards to make it 21-0.

And then, with 1:32 remaining in the game, quarterback Matthew Mitchell threw a 23-yard touchdown pass to Paul Shaw. And there you have it - a 28-0 final score. All sparked by a blocked punt.

"We worked on it all week," Hampton coach Mike Smith said. "We should have gotten a couple more."

For the first 21/2 quarters, the Crabbers got almost nothing on offense. Martinez couldn't find any holes, and Mitchell wasn't finding his receivers. Some of it, maybe, had to do with the conditions. It rained for about 20 minutes just before kickoff.

"Hey, they're tough on defense," Smith said of Kecoughtan. "They have good size and they play hard. We wanted to throw a lot in this game, but it rained and we couldn't throw as much as we wanted to. I thought we'd run better. But we'll keep working on it. We'll get better."

Martinez had only 40 yards on his first 14 carries; he added 47 on his last nine attempts. Shaw finished with four receptions for 62 yards.

Hampton held Kecoughtan to 124 yards, 33 of that coming on its final two plays. Of the Warriors' 47 plays from scrimmage, only seven were snapped in Hampton territory.

Still, though this team posted its sixth shutout in eight games, Smith wasn't completely satisfied with his defense.

"We played good defense, but we didn't tackle well," he said. "I guess that's an oxymoron."